[76] わたのはらこ (Watanoharako)

 Poem Meaning and Background

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わたの原・こぎ出でて見れば・ひさかたの

wata no hara・kogi idete mireba・hisakata no

雲居にまがふ・沖つ白波

kumoi ni magau・okitsu shiranami

〜 法性寺入道前関白太政大臣（Hōshōji no Nyūdō Saki no Kanpaku Dajōdaijin）

Translation

Over the wide sea

As I sail and look around,

It appears to me

That the white waves, far away,

Are the ever shining sky.

Meaning

This poem was written for a poetry contest during the reign of Emperor Sutoku (author of [77] Se). The subject of the poem was 「海の上に遠くをながめる」, or "Gazing far over the ocean". The author of this poem, Fujiwara no Tadamichi, blends the images of the sea, the sky, clouds, and the white-capped waves. The author imagines a view where the whiteness of the waves makes them easily mistaken as clouds on the horizon. In his poem, the line between sea and sky blurs, and the wide expanse of ocean appears even wider still. 

わたの原 (watano hara) means "the wide ocean", with わた meaning sea. ひさかたの is a "pillow word" that often goes with descriptions of clouds. 雲居 (kumoi) can be translated directly as "the place where clouds are", in other words, the sky. まがふ(magau) means "to be confused with"; here, the author is confusing the waves (白波：shiranami) for clouds in the sky. 

Author

Fujiwara no Tadamichi (1097 ~ 1164) served as 関白 (kanpaku) for Emperor Toba. Due to his position in the court at the time of writing this poem, his name is the longest of all the authors in the Hyakunin Isshu.  He is the father of Jien, who authored poem [95] Ooke, and the grandfather of Yoshitsune, author of [91] Kiri.